Swindon Town 2 Colchester United 0

By Footymad PreviewerLast updated : 17 January 2004

Swindon Town manager Andy King was once again thankful to strikers Sam Parkin and Tommy Mooney as they helped his side move into the top six.

Parkin and Mooney were both on target as the Robins clinched their fourth win in six games as the strikers took their combined goal tally for the season to an amazing 27.

Parkin produced a brilliant piece of individual play on the quarter-hour mark to set King's side on their way to the three points and dent Colchester's play-off hopes in the process.

There appeared little danger when Brian Howard hunted a hopeful ball downfield but confusion between U's goalkeeper Simon Brown and defender Alan White allowed Parkin to nip in and net from close range.

Parkin also had a goal disallowed in the first half while Mooney, Howard and Sammy Igoe went close to extending the home side's advantage.

Mooney did just that as he headed home Howard's cross into the right hand corner within two minutes of the restart, to put the game out of Colchester's reach.

The U's were disappointing, with only striker Wayne Andrews providing a threat to Swindon's defence.

Andrews, who had had a goalbound shot blocked by Mooney in the 43rd minute, went close on two more occasions to reducing his sides deficit after Mooney had made the scoreline 2-0.

Visiting full-back Joe Keith was unlucky with a 76th minute free-kick that eluded everybody, but bounced off Swindon's left hand upright.

The win put the Robins in a good position to challenge for the play-offs while Colchester slipped further down the table, but King was far from happy at the final whistle.

He said: "I thought we had some real quality in the first half and deserved our lead, but we were poor after the interval.

"It's a statement of how far we've come that we've won 2-0 and I'm disappointed with parts of our play, but the team have put themselves in a position where they can achieve something."
Colchester boss Phil Parkinson moaned: "We let ourselves down. We played five-a-side football in the first half and they didn't have to work for their two goals."